Otter Adventures: Disk Go

I've been playing Disk Golf, Frisbee Golf, or DG on and off for about 15 years. It's an inexpensive way to enhance a walk in the woods. The metro has many courses and I'm told the AMWorlds 2014 will be played here and 700 PDGA players come to town to compete. Yes, that's a little funny, like a Pro Frisbee player gets any respect versus an Amateur.

A few weeks back, the wife and I are looking for something to do that doesn't commit us to a lot of time between other domestic chores and I propose we go play DG and she agrees to give it a go. I have 20+ disks so we chose some stable ones to load her Golf Bag and off into the woods we go. Strong players throw over 500 feet. I throw about 350 with the lucky 400 foot toss.

Holes are mixed length just like regular golf from 150 to 600+ feet depending on uphill, doglegs and water holes with par 3's and 4's dominating. We label the disks like clubs, Driver, Fairway, Approach and a Putter.

They all have flight characteristics like Overstable, Understable and Stable as well as Power (aka. airspeed). On top of that they have magnitudes of stability like +5 Overstable meaning it breaks very hard. Terms like Hyzer and Anhyzer describe the release angle. Forehand and backhand throws reverse the break making the disk turn right or left at the end of flight. This means at any time, you can throw any disk and make it do anything your want, or don't want. You can slice it into the trees, pull-it into the brush, get it high into the winds or worm burn it. All the ailings of regular golf but it costs about $10 a 'club'. My bag and disks retail for about $200 but I carry 14 or more disks. A beginner can easily get a fairway and putter (Shark and Aviar) and get paying for $20 or less.

Courses have all the components of regular golf but without tee times unless you go to Como. Most are free to play and you don't have much of a crowd but others are swarming with young people like Alimagnet. Some have a pay to play for the day. $5 gets you a little elbow room and a more mature crowd as well as better fairways. No reason to play an overgrown course and lose gear and get frustrated. If you're new to the game, chose a free, easy, municipal course at a school (northview or garlough) or pay the $5 and play something not overrun like north valley or oakwoods (free).

You're going to hit trees. Everyone doinks trees. The trees have taken an awful beating in the years. You can see the damage over time. It's like the trees pain is expressed in the bark. Look at that tree and tell me that isn't the tortured sole of nature. All it did was grow in-line with the tee shot but it lives a famous life as "that damn tree" and gives it's pain back to players in extra strokes. Look and you'll see faces heckling, "Dork's going to doink!"

It's not alone.